Oil clearing apparatus for bowling ball

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is an oil clearing apparatus for a bowling ball which clears oil on a surface of a bowling ball by using high-temperature heat, thereby preventing the bowling ball from sliding due to the oil applied to a lane of a bowling alley, and is utilized for the purpose of keeping the bowling ball warm and heating the bowling ball, as well as storing the bowling ball.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to an oil clearing apparatus for a bowlingball, which can clear oil on a surface of a bowling ball by usinghigh-temperature heat, thereby preventing the bowling ball from slidingdue to the oil applied to a lane of a bowling alley, and can be utilizedfor the purpose of keeping the bowling ball warm and heating the bowlingball, as well as storing the bowling ball.

BACKGROUND ART

In general, bowling is one of indoor sports in which a bowling ball of apredetermined weight is rolled along a lane to throw down pins arrangedat an end of the lane, and is being recently spotlighted since the gamerule of the bowling is relatively simple and a high exercising effectcan be achieved.

Relatively heavy bowling balls designed to be held by inserting fingersare used in bowling games, and oil on lanes or other foreign substancesare often attached to the bowling balls during use of the bowling balls.Thus, if the contaminants are not cleared, the bowling balls may havebad outer appearances and may be slid and separated from the hand aswell, also badly influencing the game records due to inferior rollingcharacteristics thereof.

Thus, according to the related art, a bowling player has to wipe acontaminated bowling ball with towel personally before and after thegame or during the game.

However, the process of manually wiping a contaminated bowling ball isvery troublesome and considerably laborious, and does not exhibit asufficient washing effect, demanding advent of a mechanical washingapparatus.

As an example of related technologies, Korean Patent Pre-registrationNo. 1995-0008098 discloses a bowling ball washing apparatus as shown inFIG. 1. The bowling ball washing apparatus includes a housing 20 definedby a bottom plate 22, a vertical wall 24 and a ceiling plate 26, and ahorizontal baffle plate 28 is disposed in the housing 20. A bowling ballintroduction opening 30 having a diameter slightly larger than that ofthe bowling ball is formed in the ceiling plate 26 of the housing 20,and a user can input the bowling ball into the washing apparatus throughthe bowling ball introduction opening 30.

A coin insertion slot 32 is arranged on the vertical wall 24 of thehousing 20 and a bowling ball support body 34 is arranged below thebowling ball insertion opening 30 to be spaced apart from the bowlingball introduction opening 30, and a soft washing cloth 36 formed of anwater absorbing material is detachably attached onto an inner curvedsurface of the bowling ball support body 34.

A driving roller 38 is supported by an arm at an upper side of thebowling ball support body 34 to be rotated about an axis of rotationthereof by an electric motor 42, an output shaft of the electric motor42 is connected to an axis of rotation of the driving roller 38 by abelt 44 in conjunction with the driving roller 38, and a driven roller46 is installed at an opposite side of the driving roller 38 to berotated about an axis of rotation thereof while maintaining an intervalby which the bowling ball can be accommodated.

However, the bowling ball washing apparatus washes the bowling ball withthe washing cloth 36 while rotating the bowling ball with the drivenroller 46 and the driving roller 38, and the washing cloth is repeatedlyreused, so the oil attached to the bowling ball cannot be perfectlyeliminated.

DISCLOSURE Technical Problem

The present invention has been made in an effort to solve theabove-described problems, and an object of the present invention is toprovide an oil clearing apparatus for a bowling ball, which cannaturally clear oil from a surface of a bowling ball due to gravity byusing properties of the oil which is melted when heated, simultaneouslyclear the oil and foreign substances, serve as a keeping box for thebowling ball while clearing the oil of the bowling ball, keep thetemperature of the bowling ball and heat the bowling ball whilepreventing the bowling ball from sliding.

Technical Solution

In order to accomplish the object, according to an aspect of the presentinvention, there is provided an oil clearing apparatus for a bowlingball including a housing having an upper body and a lower body installedseparately from the upper body, a heating unit provided in at least oneof the upper body and the lower body, and casing installed inside theupper and lower bodies of the housing to support the bowling ball whilethe bowling ball is heated by the heating unit, wherein a drain unit isconnected to the casing located in the lower body.

The oil clearing apparatus may further include a locking unit and a knobin the housing, and a control box is provided at one side of the heatingunit to control an operation and a temperature of the heating unit.

The oil clearing apparatus may further include a support unit 210supporting the bowling ball and provided inside the casing 200 and apositioning boss fixing the bowling ball 300 and provided at a lowerportion of the casing.

The oil clearing apparatus may further include a drain unit including adrain hole and a collection box installed to close the drain hole andcoupled to the support unit serving as a screw coupling unit through asealing member.

The heating unit may include a heating coil installed at an innerperiphery of the housing and a control box including a microcomputerconnected to the heating coil to control the heating temperature andtime.

The heating unit may have a heating coil, a blower fan, and a pluralityof air holes through which external air flows by the blower fan.

Advantageous Effects

As described above, the oil clearing apparatus for a bowling ballaccording to the present invention can naturally clear oil from asurface of a bowling ball by using properties of the oil which is meltedwhen heated, naturally remove foreign substances from a surface of thebowling ball when the oil is cleared, serve as a keeping box whileclearing the oil of the bowling ball, store the bowling ball whilemaintaining the temperature of the bowling ball and heat the bowlingball while preventing the bowling ball from sliding.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a bowling ball washing apparatusaccording to the related art;

FIGS. 2 to 4 are a perspective view, a disassembled view, and anassembled sectional view showing an oil clearing apparatus according tothe present invention, respectively;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an oil clearing apparatus accordingto another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view showing an oil clearing apparatusaccording to the present invention;

FIGS. 7A and 7B are sectional views showing a heating unit provided inthe oil clearing apparatus according to the present invention,respectively;

FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing an oil clearing apparatus including aheating unit according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 9A and 9B are sectional views showing mounted states of heatingunits according to other embodiments of the present invention,respectively;

FIGS. 10 and 11 are perspective views showing oil clearing apparatus ofthe present invention, respectively;

FIG. 12 is a perspective view showing a keeping state of the oilclearing apparatus according to the present invention; and

FIGS. 13A and 13B are a perspective view and a sectional view showing anoil clearing apparatus according to another embodiment of the presentinvention, respectively.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will bedescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIGS. 2 to 4 are a perspective view, a disassembled view, and anassembled sectional view showing an oil clearing apparatus according tothe present invention, respectively, FIG. 5 is a perspective viewshowing an oil clearing apparatus according to another embodiment of thepresent invention, FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view showing an oilclearing apparatus according to the present invention, FIGS. 7A and 7Bare sectional views showing a heating unit provided in the oil clearingapparatus according to the present invention, respectively, FIG. 8 is asectional view showing an oil clearing apparatus including a heatingunit according to another embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 9Aand 9B are sectional views showing mounted states of heating unitsaccording to other embodiments of the present invention, respectively,FIGS. 10 and 11 are perspective views showing oil clearing apparatus ofthe present invention, respectively, FIG. 12 is a perspective viewshowing a keeping state of the oil clearing apparatus according to thepresent invention, and FIGS. 13A and 13B are a perspective view and asectional view showing an oil clearing apparatus according to anotherembodiment of the present invention, respectively.

The oil clearing apparatus C of the present invention has an assemblystructure of a housing 100 having supports 140 for preventing rollingand a casing 200 provided inside the housing 100.

The housing 100 of the present invention may be fixed to a box-shapedouter casing (not shown) without an additional support.

A heating unit 110 is provided inside the housing 100 and a locking unit120 is provided at a connecting portion of the housing 100 to preventthe housing 100 having upper and lower separable structures from beingseparated.

The housing 100 may have a separable structure without using theseparate locking unit 120.

A control unit 150 having a combination of a temperature adjustor 151, atimer 153, and a microcomputer 155 connected to the temperature adjuster151 and the timer 153 is further provided such that the control unit 150can be exposed to the outside at one side of the housing 100.

Then, the control unit 150 may be integrally or separately provided atone side of the housing 100, and may be installed to supply an externalpower through a connector 157.

The casing 200 is integrally installed at an inner side of the housing100 to support the bowling ball 300 and the drain unit 170 is connectedto the casing 200.

The housing 100 may not include the drain unit 170 separately.

A knob 180 is further installed at an outer side of the housing 100 fortransportation.

A support unit 210 for supporting the bowling ball 300 is furtherprovided inside the casing 200, and a positioning boss 230 for fixingthe bowling ball 300 is further provided at a lower portion of thecasing 200.

The positioning boss 230 includes a plurality of support bosses 231corresponding to finger insertion portions 310 of the bowling ball 300and fixing blocks 235 connected to the support bosses 231 via springs233 and coupled to the casing 200.

The drain unit 170 includes a drain hole 171, an L-shaped guide groove173 to close the drain hole 171 and a collection box 175 having a fixingboss 175a corresponding to the guide groove 173 and coupled to the guidegroove 173 through vertical movement and rotation thereof.

As shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, the heating unit 110 includes a firstheating coil 111 installed at an inner periphery of the housing 100, anda set of first heating coils may be separately installed at inner sidesof the upper and lower casings or may be integrally connected to eachother.

As shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B, the heating unit 110 includes a heatingchamber 113, a second heating coil 115 provided at an inner side of theheating chamber 113, a blower fan 114 provided in the heating chamber113, and a vent hole 117.

The vent hole 117 may be formed in the upper body 101 and the lower body103 prepared as a set in the housing 100, respectively, or one vent holemay be formed such that air can flow through a separate vent hole formedat a connecting portion of the upper body 101 and the lower body 103coupled with each other.

The heating unit 110 may employ a surface heater instead of a coil.

Meanwhile, a plurality of stoppers 270 protrude from a side surface ofthe casing 200 while forming the same plane to prevent interference withthe bowling ball 300 received in the casing 200 such that a supportshelf 275 can be positioned thereon.

The oil clearing apparatus C and the bowling ball 300 are kept in abowling ball bag 400 having a support plate 410.

As shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B, in the oil clearing apparatus C of thepresent invention, after the upper body 101 and the lower body 103 ofthe housing 100 are separately installed, the support unit 105 is formedin the lower body 103 to accommodate one end of the upper body 101 and aflexible cable 290 is connected to sides of the upper and lower bodies101 and 103 to supply an electric power to the heating coil 111 of theheating unit 110.

In the present invention, an adiabatic member 500 is provided into thehousing 100 to prevent loss of heat of the heating unit 110.

In the present invention, as shown in FIG. 8, the upper body 101 of thehousing 100 has a height smaller than a height of the lower body 103 sothat the center of weight of the housing 100 is located in the lowerbody 103.

Hereinafter, the operation of the present invention will be described.

As shown in FIGS. 2 to 13, the present invention has the housing 100including the combination of the upper body 101 and the lower body 103and the casing 200 installed to correspond to the shape of the bowlingball 300 when connected to the upper and lower bodies 103 of the housing100 while forming a closed space inside the housing 100 so that thebowling ball 300 can be kept inside the housing 100 to which the casing200 are integrally coupled.

Then, the housing 100 is connected by a hinge at one side thereof and isprovided with the locking unit 120 at the other side thereof, so thatthe bowling ball 300 can be safely kept if the housing 100 is closed andmovement of the housing 100 is minimized by the supports 140 provided ona bottom surface of the housing 100 when the housing 100 is received ina keeping bag 400.

Further, the oil clearing apparatus C of the present invention performsa function of a keeping container even without a bowling ball bag 400and can be carried by using the knob 180.

Moreover, the heating unit 110 for heating an inner side of the casing200 is provided at one side of the casing 200 mounted to an inner sideof the housing 100, that is, the closed space 200 to heat an inner sideof the casing 200 during an operation thereof, thereby melting the oilattached to the bowling ball 300 and separating the oil from the bowlingball.

Then, the heating unit 110 is connected to the control unit 150including a temperature adjustor 151, a timer 153, and a microcomputer155 connected to the temperature adjuster 151 and the timer 153 toadjust the temperature of the bowling ball 130 to a desired temperature,making it possible to safely adjust temperature while preventingoverheating by using a program input to the microcomputer 155 inadvance.

Further, in the present invention, the adiabatic member 500 is filled atone side of the heating unit 110 so that the heat generated by theheating unit 110 can be transferred only to an inner side of the casing,minimizing loss of heat to the outside of the housing 100.

The heating unit 110 includes the first heating coil installed at aninner periphery of the upper housing 100 and attached to the casing 200,the heating chamber 113, the second heating coil 115 provided inside theheating chamber 113, the blower fan 115 provided in the heating chamber113, and the vent hole 117, so that when the blower fan 115 is operated,the air heated in the heating chamber 113 flows through the vent hole117 via the blower fan 115 to heat the closed space while transferringheat to the casing 200 to heat an inner side of the casing 200.

Meanwhile, the heating unit 110 of the present invention may not have acoil shape but may use a surface heater.

Further, the heating unit 110 easily connects the melted and dropped oilthrough the drain unit 170 connected to the casing 200.

The support unit 210 for supporting the bowling ball 300 is provided atan inner side of the casing 200 and the positioning bosses 230 forfixing the bowling ball 300 is provided at a lower portion of the casing200 to safely support and keep the bowling ball 300 received in thecasing 200.

Then, the support unit 210 includes a support plate 211 and a resilientsupport portion 213, and the positioning boss 230 includes a pluralityof support bosses 231 corresponding to the finger insertion portions 310of the bowling ball 300 and the fixing blocks 235 connected to thesupport bosses 231 via springs 233 and coupled to the casing 200, sothat the bowling ball can be safely supported by easily absorbing animpact of the bowling ball.

The drain unit 170 includes the drain hole 171, the L-shaped guidegroove 173 configured to close the drain hole 171 and the collection box175 having the fixing boss 175a corresponding to the guide groove 173and coupled to the guide groove 173 through vertical movement androtation thereof, so that the drain unit 170 can be promptly coupled andseparated and the melted and dropped oil can be easily collected andthen removed.

Meanwhile, the stoppers 270 protrude from a side surface of the casing200 while forming the same plane to prevent interference with thebowling ball 300 received in the casing 200 such that the support shelf275 can be positioned thereon, so that the oil clearing apparatus C canbe utilized as a keeping container when the oil clearing apparatus C isnot used to clear oil by using the heated casing.

As shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B, the oil clearing apparatus C of thepresent invention includes the lower body having the support unit bywhich one end of the upper body is accommodated and attached to thelower body, and when the oil clearing apparatus C is kept, the upperbody and the lower body can be separated to reduce a keeping space.

Further, as shown in FIG. 8, the upper body 101 of the housing has aheight smaller than a height of the lower body 103 so that the center ofweight of the housing 100 is located in the lower body 103. Thus, thehousing 100 is prevented from being overturned when stored.

What is claimed is:
 1. An oil clearing apparatus for a bowling ball, theoil clearing apparatus comprising: a housing having an upper body and alower body installed separately from the upper body; a heating unitprovided in at least one of the upper body and the lower body; and acasing installed inside the upper and lower bodies of the housing tosupport the bowling ball while the bowling ball is heated by the heatingunit.
 2. The oil clearing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the heating unitinstalled in at least one of the upper body and the lower body maintainsa predetermined temperature for a predetermined time by a control unitconnected to the housing.
 3. The oil clearing apparatus of claim 1,wherein a drain unit is connected to the casing located in the lowerbody, a support unit for supporting the bowling ball is provided insidethe casing, and a positioning boss for fixing the bowling ball isprovided at a lower portion of the casing.
 4. The oil clearing apparatusof claim 3, wherein the drain unit includes a drain hole, an L-shapedguide groove configured to close the drain hole and a collection boxhaving a fixing boss corresponding to the guide groove and coupled tothe guide groove through vertical movement and rotation thereof.
 5. Theoil clearing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the heating unit includes aheating coil installed at an inner periphery of the housing.
 6. The oilclearing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the heating unit includes aheating chamber, a second heating coil provided at an inner side of theheating chamber, a blower fan provided in the heating chamber, and avent hole.
 7. The oil clearing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the housingincludes a plurality of stoppers received in the casing to preventinterference with the bowling ball and support a shelf during adischarging operation and a knob formed at an outer side of the housing.8. The oil clearing apparatus of claim 1, wherein an adiabatic member isfilled in the casing at one side of the heating unit.
 9. The oilclearing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the upper body of the housing hasa height smaller than a height of the lower body so that a center ofweight of the housing is located in the lower body.